ChuLiech: In flight
by sweetsnow73
Summary: Requested by Ayumi Kudou. Human AU. China X Liechtenstein. If they could remain, they would. But they would make do with the time they had.


Requested on my tumblr by Ayumi Kudou.

I'm not used to getting requests; I didn't think anyone would want me to write something for them. So I was really surprised! I feel bad however because this took so long. I just can't tell when an idea will click or what have you. The ever elusive muse. This is a long time coming, a million thank yous for patience and the request. I got excited to try because it was a new pairing for me to try and write.

Unofficial theme song for this is "Gone, Gone, Gone" by Phillip Phillips

* * *

His summer cabin was located at the foot of a large mountain. It actually belonged to Yao's family, a gift that anyone in the family could us. It was dark wood and almost completely hidden between trees. While Lili knew a lot about mountains, having one in her backyard at home, this one was unique. Mountains are each unique, full of character and she found herself wanting to take pictures. Even gripping the camera that hangs around her neck and having to swallow the impulse.

The architecture mostly old but she could spot additions, updates and other small things that hinted at a more recent human touch. Yao was carrying their luggage, the door had a lock and it creaked as it opened.

The cabin was small; it was old and full of knick knacks and old tools that she didn't recognize.

"AHH, sorry about the dust! It's been a while…" Yao dropped their bags and tried to clear the dusty table and chairs for them, having grabbed the nearest cloth looking thing.

Yao was the son of a political figure; she wasn't sure what kind of influence his father had but they had met at a conference. This sounds odd, given that it was full of 16-29 year olds but they had hit it off and had been talking for over a year now. It had taken a lot of pleading but now she was in China, with her boyfriend.

A foreign concept, on all fronts. Her father had been nearly frantic at the idea at first, sputtering and shutting himself in his office. He aggressively played his piano for hours.

But eventually the sputtering didn't happen and the piano wasn't being assaulted with confused father fingers and he had given his blessing.

In her bag was a phone, and lists of things to avoid, some basic first aid instructions, how to make international calls home, how to exchange money...everything a father could send his only daughter off with.

But she was 18 now, and Yao was a mature and responsible 26.

This is first time they've been completely away from public eyes. It was hard to make a trip to be together, so it was really important for this to go well.

"I can help too!" She laughs, Yao was trying to clean a thick layer dust off anything in his sight but it was slow going.

They spent the first two days in the cabin cleaning. Moving the tools to a corner or outside, beating out the blankets they found and set up their own space. No power but an old pump well and a place for a fire. Oil lanterns and boxes with supplies. On the third day it was already feeling like a home.

It almost felt like playing house. An idea that was funny and yet had its appeal.

…

It was a hot week. The weather changed from its projected forecast into something unbearable. They ended up on a blanket under a large old tree. Both in shorts and short sleeves with bare feet wiggling.

At some point he let her paint his toe nails and put flowers in his hair. This piece of land, wild but safe, seemed like it was cut off from the rest of the world.

The tree branches and grass would sway with the much needed wind. Each breeze gentle and cool.

They would listen to the wind chime that was in a storage box and they had put out. Talking, that was what they did best. Able to pass a long time talking about small things.

"So do you think that Mircosoft is going to keep up?" She asks him while twirling flower stems into a head wreath.

"Unless it makes changes I think the market is going to fall out for them." He replies, doing the same.

They watched the flowers move. There is a bird nest on the roof and they watch the mother bird go back and forth with sticks but as the day goes on she stops and rests.

"Do you think it's weird that …" And so the conversation would go, aimless.

Lili would take pictures.

Her friends liked to joke about her being a hipster but Yao liked them.

He said she had a very particular eye for shadows.

She liked his paintings.

At night when bugs began chirping and the sun disappeared he would get out his paint set and paint nothing important.

Still lives' of the tea pot, forks, spoons. The worn counter and chipped paint coming to life, if only for the length of time it would take until he was done.

That how they met after all, the art conference in Dublin. The subject had been hyper realism in painting. Obviously something he had been interested in. She went because her favorite type of art captured life, preserving it, rather than redefining it. She had wanted to get into painting. Yao liked all kinds of painting she found out.

She was still a novice compared to Yao but still, she liked to sit up, reading by the lantern and watch him between the pages.

She had to tell him to sleep and while he would grumble he would sleep easy.

…

"No, No not there." He takes her clenched hand. It had been four days and she was trying to paint. His hand was guiding hers, the line of paint so much smoother and when they stepped away she smiled.

It was hardly the realistic cat she had wanted but at least it looked like a quadruped.

They share their art with each other. Lili watches as Yao takes pictures of trees and they look at the screen together.

"It's not exactly center, but…"

He sighs, frustrated. He gets frustrated easy, sometimes it's amazing he has the patience to paint but the proof was in the product.

"I don't understand why I can't get this right. I just want to get the right picture, now!" He flings out an arm gesturing to the tree, flowering, holding on in the heat.

"I don't have the patience you do, I see you wait for what seems like forever just for life to move into place, so frustrating. Painting is easier; I can make life exactly what I want it to be when I want it."

And here she thought he had the patience. To layer and layer paint into something beautiful.

She fiddles with the camera and he looks up at the tree in frustration. She grins.

"Let's try again; I think there is a nice prickly bush over there."

….

On the next day, the heat lets up a bit. It's enough where they know it the second they wake up, breathing easier.

Yao's arm around her moved, and he sat up. She was groggy but she swore he said "We should fly kites today".

She doesn't ask about it right away, she needs time to wake up. He was usually awake before her and he was running around faster than her groggy self could. She bumped into him a few times while walking around the kitchen.

They cleaned up, the things that pile up when it's too hot to move. Folding, water fetching, wiping.

Floor creaking under their feet, birds chirping. It was another peaceful day.

A little later she's sitting on the porch with an apple when he shows her the kites.

Hand painting things, large, one was a butterfly the other a large diamond shape. She can't read the script but he explains it's a good luck type of thing.

He found them and fixed them. There were others in one of the boxes; she hadn't expected them to be _kites._

Maybe it was because she didn't really play with kites as a child that she thought she hadn't heard him right. But he was practically bouncing on his feet.

Finishing her apple they start up a trail, a stronger wind a little higher up.

"This way, this way!" he's excited, she follows behind, the path is a little over grown but there.

They reach a nice spot and he tells her to hold the twine and he shuffles out near the edge of the plateau. The wind pulls at the butterfly and it's thrashing in the air.

She almost loses control but tugs and the butterfly stabilizes. She focusing on the butterfly but soon she sees his red kite enters her sight. She looks over and he's shuffling over to her.

For something she never imagined actually enjoying it was really nice. Peaceful.

…

So that's how the days went, they would only have a month but it was long enough to forget everything.

The pressures at home, for Yao to get into politics and for Lili to pick a college and they could pretend they were just two lost artists living off the land.

They chased mice from the cabin and when it rained they wrapped up in blankets and listened to the storm. Hands running along each other's arms and kisses on each other's faces.

Lazy days and nights.

…

It was the last day. Down the path that lead them to the cabin, a car would be waiting. They would take a plane ride together and then go their own ways.

It would be a while before they could spend time together again. So they were extra slow.

Things were washed and put back into boxes or bags.

The wind chime when down and seemed to make a sad clash as it was put in a box.

"I think that's everything."

She looks around one last time.

"Looks like it…"

She would miss him.

He would miss her.

It didn't need to be said.

She held on to his hand and they walked away from their cabin. Because it was theirs now. Even if other people in Yao's family came to stay, it would feel like theirs.

…

She's home. The first thing she does is explain why she had sun burn all over her. Then she printed off the pictures they took. She looks through them. The close ups of flowers, bugs, birds and the details of the cabin. She would show her father and tell him all about them.

She wouldn't however show him the pictures of sleeping Yao. Using that patience that he admired she had been able to capture the rare moment of stillness.

Unpacking is when she finds it.

A collapsed butterfly kite in between her tops and bottoms.

A note on how to put it back together and soon she's holding the large butterfly.

Her father almost asks her why she's standing outside flying a kite but puts it off.

She doesn't know that miles and miles away, her boyfriend has a kite hanging up in his room, next to a small painting. He had imagined it and relived it a million times. It's the two of them at the cabin. Bare foot and happy. He tried to capture the feeling, the space, peace and the happiness they felt. He'd have to ask her if he did it right.

There isn't a good way to capture the peace of a kite in flight, or the love between them. But until they could stay together he'd have to try. Somehow, someway.


End file.
